The Web For Business.com Blog

Mention the words "real estate" and most people think about a house, or a building, or land. For anyone involved in online marketing, the most valuable real estate isn't any of these things. It's something much smaller, more personal. One could even use the word "intimate" to describe it. With the rise of the mobile device, the screen of your target audience's smartphone or tablet is now the hottest real estate property.

A few thoughts to consider:

The first thing more than 50% of smartphone users do in the morning is - grab their smartphone.

80% of internet users own a smartphone

90% of time spent on a mobile device is spent using an app like Facebook or messaging. 10% is spent in the browser.

People are spending more and more time looking at their smartphones and tablets. While more complex decisions seem to require the larger screens of desktops and laptops, many searches are started online. Decisions aren't made in a device vacuum. One screen just gives way to another, depending on what your visitors are trying to accomplish.

Being aware of these trends can give your business a leg up. If people are spending more time on mobile devices using apps like Facebook, then you may want to evaluate and improve your Facebook marketing efforts. Additionally, ensuring your website provides a good user experience across multiple screen sizes becomes more important when you consider how many people are using their smartphones to browse, surf and search.

The rise of mobile also impacts your email marketing. A majority of email users access their email accounts from their mobile devices. Email messages are not necessarily mobile-friendly, so you may want to check what your messages look like when viewed on a smartphone. Responsive design is just as important for your website as it is for your email messages.

Ensuring your online marketing strategies take mobile usage into consideration is important. While more complex decisions are often made with the benefit of a larger screen, the entry point to the information gathering process is likely to be a mobile device. Going forward, the health of your business will depend on how well you meet your customers' needs, whatever device they're learning about you on.

The rise of mobile devices isn't new. Search behemoth Google announced in May 2015 that mobile accounts for more search than desktop in 10 of its key markets. This is a significant shift, but many companies have not made the shift to responsive websites that are more mobile-friendly. This could be the cause of a subtle but steady erosion of market share for those businesses.

As of April 21, 2015, Google rolled out an update that gives preference to responsive, mobile-friendly websites in searches done from mobile devices. Consider that more than 50% of your potential site visitors are going to access your website on their smartphone. Non-responsive websites will likely appear lower in the SERPs on mobile devices.

The results for non-responsive websites will likely show up as lower overall traffic over time as competing websites shift to responsive design. It may also manifest itself in higher bounce rates for mobile users coming to non-responsive sites, and potentially lower conversion rates for mobile users.

From my perspective, the business case for redeveloping a non-responsive website is starting to be more clear, especially for companies that rely on their websites for new lead generation. It also increases the importance of customer retention and referral marketing. The data that drives the business case is likely sitting untouched in your website visit statistics, so if you haven't done so lately, it's high time to dive into the numbers.

The wind will always blow and water will always flow. Change is constant online and businesses must adjust to survive. Here's hoping you make choices that allow your online presence to thrive in 2016 and beyond.

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The Web For Business.com is a consultancy specializing in online lead generation, website development, inbound marketing, social media marketing and more. We help our clients with the development of responsive websites with useful information that we help market to their target audiences. We're happy when you're happy and we hope we can help you soon!